(b Florence, 1325; d ?1405).Italian chronicler. He completed his law studies in Florence in 1360, was chancellor of the city of Perugia 1376–81, and was lecturer on Dante in the University of Florence 1391–1404. His writings include a continuation of the Nuova cronica (ed. G.C. Galletti, Florence, 1847), begun by his uncle Giovanni and continued by his father Matteo, a commentary (surviving incomplete) on Dante's Commedia, and the two-volume Liber de origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus (ed. G.C. Galletti, Florence, 1847; ed. G. Tanturli, Padua, 1997). The second volume mentions several 14th-century musicians, including Bartolo, Lorenzo da Firenze, Giovanni da Cascia and Jacopo da Bologna; it also includes a biography of Francesco Landini. For the latter this is the most detailed account to survive (although some of it is now thought to be spurious) and was used as a source of information for references to the composer throughout the 15th century.
E. Li Gotti: ‘Una pretesa incoronazione di Francesco Landini’, Atti della R. Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo, 2nd ser., v (1946), 41–6
E. Li Gotti: ‘Il più antico polifonista italiano del secolo XIV’, Italica, xxiv (1947), 196–200
G. Tanturli: ‘Il “De' viri inlustri di Firenze” e il “De origine civitatis Florentiae et de eiusdem famosis civibus” di Filippo Villani’, Studi medievali, 3rd ser., xiv (1973), 833–81
B.L. Ullman: ‘Filippo Villani's Copy of his History of Florence’, Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Rome, 2/1973), 239–45
A. Lanza: Polemiche e berte letterarie nella Firenze del primo Rinascimento (1375–1449) (Rome, 1989)
F. ALBERTO GALLO/GIANLUCA D'AGOSTINO